The British Medical Affiliation (BMA) has warned that permitting sufferers to e-book on-line GP appointments all through the day may trigger a spike in medical doctors’ workloads and create ready lists.
Beneath modifications to the GP contract that come into impact from October 2025, practices should preserve on-line session instruments open for non-urgent requests, remedy queries and admin requests all through core hours. At the moment, practices can swap these instruments off as required to handle demand.
BMA leaders say that this transfer will “change the best way that many sufferers select to entry routine non-urgent care” and dangers a spike in workload for overstretched GP practices.
Up to date steering from the BMA England GP committee states: “GPC England has been clear to authorities with its main considerations over making using on-line consultations accessible to all sufferers all through opening hours.
“At a time once we desperately must develop GP numbers and premises, now we have been frank with NHS England, DHSC and authorities that this contractual ask dangers the creation of ready lists inside our practices.”
The steering makes clear that routine, non-urgent appointment, remedy or administrative requests don’t require same-day triage, assessment or motion and urges practices to make this clear to sufferers.
Nevertheless, the BMA beforehand stated that there’s “no sensible means” to utterly keep away from pressing requests being made by means of the system – and stated it’s “working with on-line session suppliers to create safeguards to higher safe secure apply for GPs, their apply employees and sufferers”.
Dr Rob Barnett, medical secretary at Liverpool Native Medical Committee informed GPonline that plans to drive practices to maintain on-line session instruments open all through core hours are a “fiasco”.
“I believe it’s a really intelligent means of getting sufferers to only surrender and both do nothing or go some place else, which is basically worrying and never superb when one seems to be on the rising well being inequalities.
“Those that are [digitally] articulate, savvy and know what they’re doing will get by means of the system.
“Those that can afford it’s going to do one thing else and people who can’t afford it and are [digitally] illiterate will get left behind. That’s the worst-case situation,” Barnett stated.
The BMA steering additionally warns that present ranges of affected person contacts per GP per day in England are “considerably extra” than its really useful secure restrict of 25.
It explains that ready lists generally apply could be the solely strategy to preserve shifting nearer to this restrict as practices handle the affect of the change in guidelines round on-line instruments.
In the meantime, figures printed by NHS England in February 2025 confirmed that the variety of practices which sufferers can be a part of on-line had greater than doubled in 12 months, with greater than 6,150 practices supporting registration by means of the NHS App, NHS.uk or surgical procedure web sites.
